Social, political, personal and meteorological cataclysms abound. It might be something in the water, or maybe each generation feels this crash in a unique way. Regardless, because Bonnie's Blair Howerton feels it too. Despite the urge to give up and let the impending doom swallow her whole, Howerton and her band push through their new album, Wish on the Bonerelentlessly pushing forward. It's almost Sisyphean, the way Howerton approaches songwriting. Sometimes it's just not your day, but as the band says in “Rhyme or Reason,” “Just tell me when/And I'll wait.” Hope springs eternal.
This penchant for optimism—or, at least, a staunch resistance to defeat—is reflected in the brilliant compositions they compose Wish on the Bone. The style is always changing, a restless mix of shoegaze, fried country, straight-ahead indie rock, lilting blues and more. Howerton and bandmates Chance Williams and Josh Malett made the album with Jonathan Schenke, who co-produced with Howerton. Avoiding 2022 debut with Americana-inflected alt-rock 90 in Novembertake a broader look at the many faces of indie rock.
Even with the expanded scope, Wish on the Bone she is extremely precise and strict in taking risks. On 90 in NovemberHowerton wrote about Texas, the place he had left a few years before moving to New York. As such, it was filled with tributes to the state's roots, unseasonably warm weather and nostalgia for an era that may never have existed. From its beginning Wish on the Bonethings sound different. deeper, more patient, serious. Because Bonnie sounds tougher and more confident. Much of this is due to Howerton's poignant lyricism, which shifts from vulnerable to confident in an instant.
On “Wish on the Bone,” pounding drums and humming guitars create a sound somewhere between Songs Ohia and Hop Along. Howerton sings, “Sometimes it's over before it starts/So call me when the coast is clear.” It's a theme he revisits in “Rhyme or Reason,” as if he's been burned by too much eagerness in the past and now refuses to make the first move for fear of getting hurt.
However, Howerton tends to sound skeptical about those she allows into her world Wish on the Bone she is at her strongest when she occasionally allows herself to dream, wonder, and yearn. “All the Money” is a freight train of a song full of tension, shaped by guitar runs and atmospheric strings that give a sense of Hitchcockian suspense – a far more interesting tool than surprise. Over foreboding tones, Howerton wonders, “What if I could/Be somebody's baby/Never hurt, always love/My baby?” The alternating piano notes suggest that such a sentence probably won't end well.
